Inside the Episode: “Walk of Punishment”

HBO has released the Inside the Episode video for “Walk of Punishment”.

In addition, there have been a couple of interviews with David Benioff and D.B. Weiss, the writers/directors of last night’s episode, talking about THAT scene.

In an interview over at Entertainment Weekly, David and Dan talk about why they played The Hold Steady’s “Bear and the Maiden Fair” over the end credits.

“It’s such a shocking ending and when we read the scene in the books it was so shocking to us,” Weiss says. “To really hammer home the shock of that moment you need something unexpected. There’s no version of a traditional score that would keep you as off balance as we wanted that scene to leaving you feeling.”

“I can’t imagine having that conversation with Ramin [Djawadi] our composer — ‘Now we need the Jaime-gets-his-hand-chopped-off music,’” adds Benioff. who made his directorial debut with this episode. “What we always loved in An American Werewolf in London, we see our hero shot and killed and then his lover runs to embrace his dead body — it’s a sad ending — but then we cut to black and it’s [the bouncy 1961 Marcell’s hit] ‘Blue Moon.’ And that jarring juxtaposition was fantastic.”

At the Los Angeles Times, Benioff and Weiss note that pitching the part of Jaime Lannister to Nikolaj Coster-Waldau was tricky and the promise of this season had a lot to do with getting him to sign.

“It was kind of an interesting conversation when we were first making the deal with Nikolaj,” Benioff continued. “We warned him, ‘It’s going to be a good first season, then you’re going to be mostly absent in the second season’ — we ended up writing him more scenes for the second season just because Nikolaj’s so good we didn’t want to be away from him for so long. ‘But I promise you, if we make it past the second season, where we’re taking this character is going to be fantastic.’”

Winter Is Coming: As I mentioned in the comments of my recap, the song over the credits was a little off-putting at first. But it has really grown on me. I’m really looking forward to seeing the rest of Jaime’s journey this season.

Personally I didn’t have any problem with the song. I knew it was coming though, but even still, it’s just the credits. It’s not like we had Theon’s horsechase set to Motley Crue’s “Kickstart My Heart” or anything.

getting closer to shouting HODER Loved this episode but I really didnt like the song at the end of the show and closing credits I thought it was out of place and somewhat cheapen what I just watched, and as far as getting over it the song that is…. really? I hear modern jams set to a medievil story and it reminds me of a movie that had Heath Ledger and King Robert in it

Only a ‘Game of Thrones’ fan would spend most of their time talking about the end credits song than the awesome episode that preceded it. Sometimes I don’t know why I continue to read/post in the recap threads. It almost ruins my enjoyment of the show in some way. Seriously, one of the top episodes of the show’s entire run is being tossed aside to bitch about a song in the end credits. Ugh.

Seriously, cheers. I certainly won’t be reading a Winter is Coming Recap thread again. Internet arguments always get so flamed, but they’re rarely interesting to look at, and there’s barely every discussion involved. Just turns into an “I’m right!”, “No I am!” scenario.

On topic though, I’m pretty impressed that this was a directiorial debut, and I like getting the thought processes going into the making of in articles like these. That table scene was great, as was the Theon chase scene stuff, and well, most of the episode.

EDIT: Easteros bunny: No, Tyrion will not be dancing to Gangnam style. This seems analogous to me with many other “do something different? Extrapolation on the consequences!” viewpoints. Your show is gonna be just fine :P.

when I first watched the out of sync torrent version the song made me wanna cry cause it ruined the whole scene but i just rewatched on HBO Poland (wow, we’re actually only a day behind and translation ain’t bad either!) and it was ok. certainly not as terrible as I first thought.

The Small Council scene was my favorite of the episode. I loved how Tyrion took the place at the other head of the table and was very noisy about it. It was great that the scene was not rushed and that the silient moments spoke volumes.

As for the song at the end, I actually liked how it contrasted with the last scene, yet at the same time seemed to speak to the “WTF just happened” element of the event.

I still hate the song, the idea of a modern song with a medieval fantasy clashes, I almost thought I was watching true blood.

When I say I hate it, that’s the wrong word to use, I don’t hate the song I just don’t agree with a punk rock song being in a fantasy show.

What’s next tyrion dancing to that ganggang style song?

But why? It’s not like the orchestral score by the composer is accurate to a medieval period either (completely disregarding the fact that this isn’t a medieval show) – not even close. The only reason is because you’re used to the standard conventions of filmmaking where orchestral music is the only thing that can score period works.

I applaud any attempts by filmmakers to toy with conventions. (An example – Sofia Coppola’s brilliant juxtaposition of punky ’80s music with Marie Antoinette – wasn’t a fan of the overall film, but I really liked what she did aesthetically with the music and visuals)

In a case like this, where they are going for a jarring moment/tone, I thought it was a brilliant move. It added to the impact of the moment, giving it a “wait, did that just happen” vibe in the form of a kick in the nuts. It added a bit of sadism to that last scene.

I don’t think it’s the right choice all the time, but as a one-off, it’s a pretty perfect use of juxtaposition and playing against conventions.

As for the episode, I thought it was the best of the three so far this season by a large margin. Very pleasantly surprised and impressed with Benioff’s directorial debut. Loved the dark humor and almost all the added scenes (except for Podrick’s) were brilliant. The Small Council scene is one of the best character moments they’ve done and I’m happy to see them grow the confidence to add more moments like that, the Hot Pie goodbye, etc.

Loved the hand chopping and credit song, it was an epic double whammy and really confident move by the showrunners to go with that song instead of just your average sad violins etc. As an “unsullied” (hate that moniker btw) i’m really happy i didn’t read any spoilers for this! I always enjoy these mindfuck-y moments! :D

Game of Thrones isn’t set in our medieval history. It has some basis in it, but it has no obligation to musically adhere to it. It’s fantasy, not history. The music was meant to be jarring, and it was. And I think it was meant to be discussed the way it has been, frankly. They love making headlines.

I was focused on the huge knife poking at Jaime’s eye. OMG.. I thought Locke was going to dig his eye out and I was squirming like no tomorrow.. I kept holding my own eyes.. thinking that would help Jaime.

And then… WHOMP.. I saw the hand jump and separate and I wanted to toss my cookies. UGH! Poor Jaime!! What a scene! Such finality to losing an appendage.. I never want to imagine that and here it was on my gigantic tv.

Theon scenes are also getting hard to watch. I’m feeling sorry for him and I DON’T WANT TO! The chase and the arrows were worthy of a blockbuster movie. Fabulous episode.

The Pod scenario was funny , particularly his return, but it all could have been much shorter to allow a bit more time elsewhere.( North of the wall, e.g. )

I didn’t like the song over the credits. Too jarring .I would have preferred a fuller version of the earlier rendition, or even something with a more jaunty pace , but more “folk” in style.. I’m recording these , but not the credits for this one. It would spoil my back to back viewing later on.

It’s not art to me , and hasn’t grown on me with 2 subsequent viewings.

The thing about the song, I think, is that it’s apparently specifically there to be jarring after an already jarring scene. It’s unnecessary and obviously lots of people didn’t like it. I genuinely don’t remember what my initial reaction was. I didn’t like it, but I wasn’t like “What the FUCK?!”

If I were the composer though, I’d be kind of upset by it. The statement that “I can’t imagine having that conversation,” would register to me as being “We don’t have faith in your ability to do this correctly or appropriately or well,” when apparently it was more just a “When we get to this scene we’re going to deliberately use shocking, completely out of place music because we saw it in a movie and THAT’S THAT.”

the song really didnt bother me much. I’m religious book reader but the many changes havent ticked me off at all i actually like not knowing whats going to happen in some instances. Ramsay snow introduction is gonna be really screw with non book readers mind, really looking forward to that and some leeches

How about we discuss the version of the song that was actually in the episode? I loved it. Whenever I read the song in the books I was never really a fan, at least not nearly as much as I was with ‘The Reynes of Castamere’ and ‘The Dornishman’s Wife’. However, hearing it sung as a marching song with Locke’s group was fantastic! Now whenever I re-read the books I will always envision this version.

We get what you were going for, D&D, but it just did not work at all. When you use juxtaposition this way the two things are still supposed to compliment each other, not be so jarring and out of place that it completely takes you out of the moment. Swing and a miss.

On topic though, I’m pretty impressed that this was a directiorial debut…

Yeah having known the first two eps were done by one director, I was looking forward to a change of pace. I have to say that this episode is one of the best in the series. The funeral scene was pretty much how I pictured it in the books. And Brynden Tully totally owned every scene, except Cat’s. :( My god, Michelle Fairley…hats off to you for bringing the emotion.

And the wolf bread! So cute. And the “Always the artists…” line killed me! haha after seeing that episode 1 comic about the white walker placing the head in the guys arms…

You nerds who just won’t accept any kind of deviation of what the show “should be” or “must be” are getting tiresome. The comment section on this site is getting closer and closer to the Stormfront of GoT fandom, i.e. westeros.org when it comes to the numbers of book purists spreading their hate of the show.

The punk rock song after the smash cut at the end fit perfectly. Was like a double kick to the head. Yet people are complaining because it wasn’t “medieval”… Christ.

john:
You nerds who just won’t accept any kind of deviation ofwhat the show “should be” or “must be” are getting tiresome. The comment section on this site is getting closer and closer to the Stormfront of GoT fandom, i.e. westeros.org when it comes to the numbers ofbook purists spreading their hate of the show.

The punk rock song after the smash cut at the end fit perfectly. Was like a double kick to thehead. Yet people are complaining because it wasn’t “medieval”… Christ.

You should have seen TheOneRing.com (Tolkien purists) during the trilogy openings 2001-2003, good times!

john:
You nerds who just won’t accept any kind of deviation ofwhat the show “should be” or “must be” are getting tiresome. The comment section on this site is getting closer and closer to the Stormfront of GoT fandom, i.e. westeros.org when it comes to the numbers ofbook purists spreading their hate of the show.

The punk rock song after the smash cut at the end fit perfectly. Was like a double kick to thehead. Yet people are complaining because it wasn’t “medieval”… Christ.

That article on the twitter kind of sums up how I feel about the whole “fiasco”. There’s absolutely nothing wrong with people disliking the choice or the song, but they should at least acknowledge to themselves that a large portion of people did like it and thought it worked, and thus it can by no means be considered some universal mistake on behalf of the producers. I think this video alone, and all the other recent articles talking to people working on the show show the love and understanding they have towards the material. If you don’t like it, cool…if you’re saying it’s some massive failure because it doesn’t fit your own preconceived notions of how things SHOULD be, then…well, the subjects been beaten to death.

Adding to the kudos for Benioff’s debut as a director. I thought he transitioned cleverly between scenes of drama vs humour, and he seems to have an excellent understanding of what works on screen vs the pages of a book. Even better, he appreciates that some things actually work BETTER on screen than on a page – the humour in the Small Council chair scene depended on visuals and sound alone, and could never have been written with the same effect. Same with the Hoster Tully funeral, and the Arya.Gendry/Hot Pie farewell, where so much was said in each scene simply by facial expressions and acting. I hope we see Benioff in the director’s chair in future.

I’ve always liked these little videos. Whether I agree with their choices or not, Benioff and Weiss are consistently able to explain their reasoning for things – and I love their little analysis of the musical chairs scene this week.

Once again, a great ep. Lots to love. I just watched it a second time, and once again struck by Nicolaj Coster-Waldau’s performance. Amazing work from him, this is going to be a great season for him.

Since I am seeing what I’ve never read I couldn’t have been more shocked by the Jaime scene. I thought for sure he’d lose his eye but I never imagined it could or would be his hand! Maybe I’m a little too much Team Stark, but I was laughing through all of the joy (sadistic much?) o.O Then when the music came on it was very jarring, it added to my shock, surprise & delight & fueled my joy even further wondering why they chose that song. I think this was the best episode yet. Aside from s1e10 this was the best music as the credits rolled IMO. VERY well done!

I really liked the direction in this one. In particular, the opening shot was a very elegant and very complex piece of camera work and staging. I don’t know how this show so consistantly manages to find such talented people for every aspect of the production, but I’m glad they do.

john:
You nerds who just won’t accept any kind of deviation ofwhat the show “should be” or “must be” are getting tiresome. The comment section on this site is getting closer and closer to the Stormfront of GoT fandom, i.e. westeros.org when it comes to the numbers ofbook purists spreading their hate of the show.

The punk rock song after the smash cut at the end fit perfectly. Was like a double kick to thehead. Yet people are complaining because it wasn’t “medieval”… Christ.

in other words, “Don’t love everything I love? Shut up purist, we don’t want your kind”

I rewatched this episode today with my brother who is a non-reader, and when Jaime lost his hand, his jaw hit the floor for a 10 solid seconds, no joke. I watched his face the entire time and it was hilarious. He thought it was a good episode, the only thing I had to catch him up on was Littlefinger being sent to the Eryie, that scene moved a little too quick for him to comprehend. Will def have to watch the RW episode with him and put it on youtube.

And me as well. I find that I spend less time on this site during the season because of the hostility in many of these discussions. I left the Westeros forums for the same reason. Everyone is entitled to their opinion – and to the differences in those opinions – but the nastiness takes the fun out of it.

Nonetheless, I, too, was impressed with Benioff’s debut as a director. Excellent epsiode. I will never tire of watching that small council scene.

AWESOME episode! But one thing kind of bothered me: I get that they have to change certain things during the transition from book to screen, but my question is, what purpose did it serve to change Vargo Hoat’s name to ‘Locke’?

Jake:
AWESOME episode! But one thing kind of bothered me: I get that they have to change certain things during the transition from book to screen, but my question is, what purpose did it serve to change Vargo Hoat’s name to ‘Locke’?

Me too, even though it’s genuinely upsetting to have to do so. I love this site’s contributors; its commenters, not so much. The A.V. Club’s expert reviews get more comments than the recaps here, and I’ve found the commenters there to be a very clever and lively bunch. Certainly the word “ruined” gets dropped with a tiny fraction of the frequency that it does here. That said, if we could switch to threaded comments here, it would probably solve most of the problem.

Not at all. Pretty predictable reply though. If you can’t recognize that this site’s comment section is going downhill you’re just refusing to acknowledge reality. And who are the trolls? Who are the whiners?

The book purists. People who haven’t read the books tend to discuss the show as it is, they’re excited about it. Book purists will fucking nitpick every single thing that doesn’t fit into their view of how the show should be and nerd rage all over the place. You simply cannot deny that the massive whining that took place because of a song that played AFTER the show had actually concluded wasn’t/isn’t completely ridiculous. I’ve literally never witnessed anything like it.

This site used to pretty good when it came to book readers actually, people were generally pretty positive and excited. But as the readership has grown, the negativity has as well. No doubt a lot of westeros.org trolls have contributed to this. They just can’t stand anyone who has another opinion of the show than them.

It reminds me of the ridiculous trolling that fans of the original BSG show would make back in the day on the BSG (reimagined) forums. Except this show has a lot more of them.

It’s not even the people who have reasonable concerns and voice them respectfully that bother me. It is the people who say the show is crap based solely on the fact that it isn’t identical to the books and don’t take an objective view of the difficulties of adapting this series. Differing opinions are fine, conversation would be boring without them, but it helps when they are expressed in a more civil manner and not with hyperbolic statements like: “This show is utter crap and has been since the first season.”

The amount of negativity and knitpicking…I just don’t get it…I read all the books yet very few changes have bugged me. I understand it’s an adaptation and I cannot phatom the insane amount of work that goes in this series. But have you seen other adaptations that are in name only? I think up till now we are still in the 80% to 90% book faithfulness going and that’s mindblowing.
But Westoros.org is worse, and I really hope not people from the TV show wander in that den, and see the venom spewed there…I am ashamed to be associated in that fan base.

A very good ep..fantastic imo …but that song at the end was pure shit..music is used to complement an ep and create a mood..that song just didn’t fit the shocking ending…anyways other than that atrocious song this ep was very very good….

I think you’re painting with too broad a brush though. There are people who do that and it does suck to read. But then there are book readers who love the show for not doing a word-for-word recreation, who often find the new scenes among the best ones (as that lovely Hot Pie farewell scene is). And there are non-readers who can be incredibly obtuse when characters don’t behave as that person believes they would. It’s not about whether one reads or doesn’t read the material. It’s about how one approaches each version. I think most people who criticize an aspect of the show will also praise other things.

My hope is for a forum where one person can say “I liked this aspect” and the next person can say “I didn’t” and nobody is made to feel unwelcome. Because people can’t help their opinions. And people who refuse to read a forum because they encounter ‘negativity’ that I guess they fear will ‘ruin’ the episode for them? Have more faith in your viewpoints. They shouldn’t be so fragile as to be unable to withstand an opposing view. And there will always be opposing views. People who make efforts to silence those views through appeals to moderators, or attempts at shaming, or whatever other means, are the real problem.

This applies to the negative bastards out there too who accuse everyone who doesn’t want to Grumpy Cat along with them of brown-nosing or something similar. People should deal with inoffensive opposing viewpoints like adults. Like or don’t like what you please and don’t be awful when someone feels differently.

john:
You nerds who just won’t accept any kind of deviation ofwhat the show “should be” or “must be” are getting tiresome.

Yup. I’ve been sick and tired of the purist complaints since last year. I know someone who recently said she wants to stop watching this “travesty of a show” because there’s no Strong Belwas. Hey, don’t get me wrong, I love Belwas too… but “travesty”? Really? Get a life.

I might be to late into the song argument. But the thing is I torrented the episode last night, and it was really surreal to have the song in the scene. But after I watched it on the telly this night, with the song in its proper place I kinda liked it. And I really understand not having sad violins as I have seen people suggesting. Jaime is a “bad guy” remember. Having violins after he loses the hand that pushed Bran(or was that his left hand) would have (for some viewers) been like having violins after Scars death in Lion King.
Not sure if I had to spoiler tag that though.

when i read it in the book – and saw it last night – all i could really think was “how are they going to film this so that i looks like jamie’s hand is gone?”
tyrion’s nose is supposed to be cut off at blackwater and they finessed their way around that, but i can’t imagine how they’re going to *affordably* shoot it so that jamie really looks like an amputee. i mean, you can obviously do it digitally, but that could become hellaciously expensive.

Why do the song-haters write posts such as “D&D, you tried and you failed, period.”? Why do you try to sound like it’s the overall, majority view you are passing on? At least show some respect to other viewers who liked it and add “in my opinion” or “I thought”.

Two nice references to The Godfather. First, obviously Dany’s reprimand to Mormont and Whitebeard. Second, the cut-off horse head at the Fist of the First Men.

when i read it in the book – and saw it last night – all i could really think was “how are they going to film this so that i looks like jamie’s hand is gone?”
tyrion’s nose is supposed to be cut off at blackwater and they finessed their way around that, but i can’t imagine how they’re going to *affordably* shoot it so that jamie really looks like an amputee. i mean, you can obviously do it digitally, but that could become hellaciously expensive.

I think that a severed hand is actually one of the easier SFX to pull off, so long as he’s wearing sleeves. I believe there are some on-set photos of him with the “stump” wrapped in bandages and the forearm in a sling across his chest, which could well be a completely prosthetic arm.

Later on (minor book spoilers) he has an armorer forge a prosthetic that looks more or less like a golden gauntlet, which will make it pretty easy to pull off.

Book purists & show fanboy apologists are quite clearly — dare I say obviously? — two sides of the same coin. What we’re talking about are unreasonable people. And generalizing wildly about fans and/or critics is just more of the same. How hard is that to understand?

Haha, yes! I was somewhat disappointed to not see the “mistake” version that had the closing music played over the final scene.
Youtubers, get to it! We need a Yakety Sax version of the nastiest moments of Season 3.

I loved what Benioff said in one of the interviews about being influenced by An American Werewolf in London – one of my favorite movies of all time, a perfect blend of true horror and dark comedy.

That movie ended with a shocking rampage of violence and a woman keening over the body of dead loved one, and then cut to an upbeat 1950s doowop pop song for the credits. A friend of mine attended one of the first screenings of that movie when it was first released, and she said that the whole theater just sort of stared in silent shock for several minutes when the credits rolled. Nobody knew quite how to react.

I see a lot of people complaining about “The Bear and the Maiden Fair” being way out of place and inappropriate for the scenes it follows. What can I say? After years of working in a trauma center I’ve developed a very morbid, shocking sense of humor. Quite frankly, after dealing with blood and tragedy and terror all day you need to crack absurd jokes to break the tension and grief, or you’ll go crazy. Yes it is inappropriate and doesn’t match what is going on. That is the whole point.

So, after the comical bit with Pod’s deflowering, we have Theon’s chase scene, followed by the final scene with Jaime and Brienne as prisoners of war. That is a ten minute block of either breakneck action, or high suspense moments in which two separate characters trying to evade gang rape, torture, and slow death.
Stellar acting on the part of Gwendoline Christie, who conveys so much with her facial expressions, very much nailing the part of a person awaiting the worst, and probably the last, night of her life. And just when you think it is resolved, then the whole thing is finished off with an totally unexpected and brutal dismemberment. TEN STRAIGHT MINUTES of what should be emotionally exhausting dramatic tension, if the creators of the show have done their job right and gotten the viewers invested in the characters.
Cut to a bawdy, goofy pop-punk drinking song about bears and sexy girls. Thank the gods. Enjoy the Bear song, and the respite from the gruesome violence and heartbreak, because the show has much more to offer.

Besides, ‘The Bear and the Maiden Fair’ isn’t just dark humor, it is important foreshadowing. ;)

Gotta say though, that was some fast and skilled marksmanship from the guy that saved Theon :o Don’t know how “realistic” it was compared to all the other fighting scenes, but either way was amazing and well executed! Tense!

The-Valonqar:
I might be to late into the song argument. But the thing is I torrented the episode last night, and it was really surreal to have the song in the scene. But after I watched it on the telly this night, with the song in its proper place I kinda liked it. And I really understand not having sad violins as I have seen people suggesting. Jaime is a “bad guy” remember. Having violins after he loses the hand that pushed Bran(or was that his left hand) would have (for some viewers) been like having violins after Scars death in Lion King.
Not sure if I had to spoiler tag that though.

LOL am I the only one who thinks its funny he spoiler tagged the end of a movie thats about 20 years old?

For a long time I just haven’t seen the need for a forum on the topic, but I might be missing something, so I’ll stop by. Thanks for the invite and link.

Don’t be disparaged, often times it’s the same few that blow up a single complaint,
inflating those comments to an extreme. from there, many give in to some
compulsion to follow suit. Keep calm and carry on, or just avoid the topic.
Nothing warrants wading through slop and sludge. beware of others that want
to lure you in………… Run………… away…… fast .

Really shocked at the vitriol and misplaced passion. I didn’t even register the
song at the end, Celine Dion could have been singing for all I know ( and I am
no fan of Ms Dion ). Nearly perfect GoT episode.

Episode? Great. I especially liked all the King’s Landing parts. The made me laugh.
Credits? Misunderstanding. Not that I don’t like the song, it’s okay. But we didn’t have the modern music before and I don’t see a reason to introduce it in so late stage of the series. For me it was experience similar to listening to opening credits of Star Trek: Enterprise after getting used to Star Trek: Next Generation, DS-9 and Voyager. Can live with that, but question “why?” remains.

The episode itself credits only Benioff. Wic.net’s episode guide follows suit. But then this article says again that both writers directed the episode, as it was announced (by lots of press, and by makinggameofthrones.com). Even in the HBO site itself, at the “inside the episode” feature, Weiss is credited as co-director.

I really really hate that song (bear with me the reason why is not what you think) I thought after seeing that final image I was never ever gonna get it out of my head. When I woke up this morning it was gone. However that damn song keeps playing over and over and over and over in my head! I’ve been singing it ever since I got up. It’s almost as worse as the Rains of Castamere! I sang that for three days straight before I got it out of my head.

Otherwise absolutely terrific episode. The ending was truly agonising and I knew exactly what was coming and when it was coming. But D&D made it even worse than it was in the book. That final shot I thought was absolutely brilliant. I think the best shot on the show so far and that’s saying something. the slow reveal as you first don’t see anything and than you see Jaime’s arm moving but not his hand and than finally the bloody stump is revealed and Jaime starts screaming. I really really realy hope D&D will direct another episode in the future. They’re masterful at it. Also I think NCW should win an emmy for this episode. His acting was so real. If I didn’t know any better I’d say they actually did cut off his hand Those two talents combined made this scene for me to be the most horific, most shocking scene to date. Can’t wait for the next episode!

Shane snow:
So who is burn gorman actually playin then? That was him in the NW right

That’s what I thought – the one that was watching one of Craster’s daughter/wives. (Surprised that there wasn’t any mention of it in the thread – at least not that I noticed.) Guess he will be one of the perpetrators of the massacre .

Me too, even though it’s genuinely upsetting to have to do so. I love this site’s contributors; its commenters, not so much…

That said, if we could switch to threaded comments here, it would probably solve most of the problem.

I love this site, too. Its very well-run and the content is terrific. And I agree that threaded comments would alleviate some of these issues. Its too bad. I enjoy this show and like having reasonable discussions about it with other fans. It is becoming impossible to find a “welcoming place” to do it.

Tyrion Pimpslap:
It’s not even the people who have reasonable concerns and voice them respectfully that bother me. It is the people who say the show is crap based solely on the fact that it isn’t identical to the books and don’t take an objective view of the difficulties of adapting this series. Differing opinions are fine, conversation would be boring without them, but it helps when they are expressed in a more civil manner and not with hyperbolic statements like: “This show is utter crap and has been since the first season.”

Well said. There is one aspect of this that I don’t understand. For those that think this show is “utter crap”, why continue to watch it? And why spend time coming into forums like this to complain?

This is now among my top ten all time for funniest tele show scenes.
It is actually quite brilliant considering no dialogue until the end. The screeching chair had me cringing as well as laughing, perfect timing.

Applause and kudos to all involved, including and especially D&D. Well done on the Theon horse chase too; beautiful, exciting, made me smile when the bad guys lowered their heads at the branch (twist on the iconic) The shear ferocity and quick brutality of the arrow shots, thumbs up.

That probably has something to do with the directors’ guild they belong to… something about only being able to put one name on the credits. Hopefully next time around they’ll just swap names so that the other gets credit.

I hated the use of that song over the credits. It went from Jaime’s chilling, “ahhhhhhhh!” to shitty punk music; I was scrambling to turn it off it was so off-putting. Sorry, bad choice. In fact, rewatching the scene in this clip, and the melancholy music they use leading up to it made me even more emotional and then hearing Jaime screen with a cut to black was perfect. I can still hear the scream.

Regarding Dany’s giving away her dragon it would work better if the slave owner had requested her dragons first and then Dany tried to bargain and ended up settling for just one dragon. That way, when she betrays the slave owner by using her dragon against him, it works much better I don’t think anyone truly believes she’s giving up her dragons, other than Barristan, Jorah, and the slave owner.

Cmoon now people! If you really can’t stand the credits song, then stick yer head in the sand and pretend it didn’t happen. This was the showrunners choice, and to me, it was a perfect one. Out of place? Yes, that was the point. Not “medieval”? Yes, deal with it.

Let the credits be their own thing. Once it cuts to black, what follows is just a list of names, you know.

Winterdark,
Did you notice at the earlier Fist of Men scene how the camera was frequently at ground level showing the meaty ends of the severed horse parts? As soon as they showed us Jaime’s arm pulling back from the hand, I thought of that horse scene. I mean, the perspective is the same, the same meaty “ickyness” (makes me a bit nauseous thinking about it honestly). Did anyone else notice that? And do you think it was on purpose?

About Dany, I disagree. I think that she HAS to be the one to come up with such a scheme because they need to show her becoming stronger, more devious and displaying much more cunning. As the character stands right now she wouldn’t last 24 hours in Westeros against the cunning of Varys, Cersei, Tyrion, Jaime, etc. And it’s not too hard to believe that the slaver bought into her ruse. He clearly thinks she’s an idiot and her giving up a dragon for a small army is, on the surface, a stupid thing to do as Ser Barristan said. It just confirms the slaver’s bias against her and his weakness.

Caulker:
Cmoon now people! If you really can’t stand the credits song, then stick yer head in the sand and pretend it didn’t happen. This was the showrunners choice, and to me, it was a perfect one. Out of place? Yes, that was the point. Not “medieval”? Yes, deal with it.

Let the credits be their own thing. Once it cuts to black, what follows is just a list of names, you know.

I liked the episode very well, I liked the song the Bear the Maiden Fair when the company of men were riding, I just didnt like the song and the way it was done at the closing credits,and we simply disagree… people are just reading to much into it… as for it just being a list of names at the end I disagree with that.. a lot of work goes into these shows and the names listed shows us who does what and for those of us who keep up with the people on these lists it means something to them I`m sure….. HODOR

It’s just that with Dany being the first to make the suggestion, it makes what’s to come a lot more obvious. Where if Kraznys voices the idea first (this doesn’t mean Dany hasn’t fully thought of the situation before it’s suggested) he would have no reason to be suspicious. If they want to play the character like he’s stupid, fine. But I don’t think the newbie audience actually expects her to sell a dragon, with her being first to suggest it.

Mike: as for it just being a list of names at the end I disagree with that.. a lot of work goes into these shows and the names listed shows us who does what and for those of us who keep up with the people on these lists it means something to them I`m sure…..

Fair enough, i’m of course aware of this as well.. I was just tryin to make a point about allowing the credits to be it’s own thing. I’m also 100% sure D&D intended for this to be discussed as much as it is right now. It was, after all, a bold choice. And not one everbody would automately like. But for me personally, it was perfect. The feeling i was left with after watching it the first time was priceless, a true wtf moment. And damn good television! :)

I agree about Dany using it being her idea as a power game – both over Kraznys and Jorah and Selmy. She knows what she’s doing, and she’s using this to prove to Jorah and Selmy that she’s not the little girl they think she is either. I think that as the language is a bastardised Valyrian she has a good idea of what Kraznys has really been saying about her, so she knows he’ll just tut and say “stupid whore”!

I think the tv-only audience may have been swayed by Jorah and Selmy’s protests and Dany reprimading them for arguing with her. Dany has been set up as a little girl trying to find power and appearing lost and frustrated a lot of the time. Without prior knowledge of her plans I think an audience would see this as the move of a desperate girl, rather than the smart move of a woman growing into her power

Great spot on the Dany/Jorah/Barristan dynamic; with the Arstan mystery removed (for obvious reasons, I think) I could see D&D playing this a bit further if they’ve decided to go with the attack via the sewers later on.

I thought the episode was quite brilliant; from the Meereenese Knot joke (which I think might be a double-joke – the only reference to GRRM/the book process is used in relation to a whore, so I kinda think it’s a little bit of D&D reminding the audience who is not whose bitch, but I’m open to admitting I’ve overread the gag) to the smash-cut-BAM-music at the end of the episode, which jarred the hell out of me, so it utterly succeeded in its creative intent.

The literal “game of thrones” the small council play.

The lovely, lovely scene with Tyrion and Pod, where I think its at least implied that Tyrion has paid the whores to give Pod his money back — even if not, that whole “treat” for Pod is a deliberate reversal by Tyrion of what Tywin did to him with Tysha.

I do think the Mance/Tormund/Jon scenes are still not quite igniting, but Hinds is such a killer actor that I’m still hopeful of better to come, and god knows they’ll have space to focus on the NW a bit more if they’re rattling through at this rate from now on.

And E4’s supposed to be even better. Come the hell on, Monday (I’m in the UK)

I think the scene wjth Pod is nothing more than something for people to get to remember him better as well as to create a stronger bond between him and Tyrion. For the stuff that’s coming next season.

Also I know I asked before but… what happened with certain important kiss? Did D&D just wrote it out of the series completely? Because I recall fab said it happened in the first episode but then it never did and nobody seems to care for the lack of it except me… Im such a sad fangil :'(

Weiss said:
“It’s such a shocking ending and when we read the scene in the books it was so shocking to us,” Weiss says. “To really hammer home the shock of that moment you need something unexpected. There’s no version of a traditional score that would keep you as off balance as we wanted that scene to leaving you feeling.”

Yes there is …….when my b/f and I watched that scene, we were “Thunderstruck” – and so … forget “The Bear and The Maiden Fair” – here is what they should have used –http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j803Fl-aLEo
BTW – Angus Young on lead guitar (schoolboy uniform) is Alfie Allen’s real daddy!

JC:
As for the episode, I thought it was the best of the three so far this season by a large margin. Very pleasantly surprised and impressed with Benioff’s directorial debut. Loved the dark humor and almost all the added scenes (except for Podrick’s) were brilliant. The Small Council scene is one of the best character moments they’ve done and I’m happy to see them grow the confidence to add more moments like that, the Hot Pie goodbye, etc.

I agree 110%. have watched the episode several times over, and the more I look at some of the details, the more I am impressed with the quality of the direction. If this debut directors Benioff( and Weiss), this is an amazing job. Some of the things I particularly appreciated:-
1. The excellent balance between light and dark, between moments of humour (sometimes darker humour) and sheer shock/horror. This takes a very deft touch, and the seamless way this was achieved marks someone who really knows what he is doing.
2. The way scenery was shot – that beautiful glimpse down the revier from the window at Riverrun, for example.
3. The way that so much was shown simply by visuals. I know it is fashionable to complain about things that were ‘lost’ from the books to the screen, but there are also things that work way, way better on screen. The small council scene worked because of the visuals and the sound of the chairs – no matter how good a writer he is, GRRM could never have given us this on the page in terms of what it said about all the many subtle dynamics that are going on. Same with Hoster Tully’s funeral, done in silence and yet look at what it showed about the people concerned. The different perspectives, things like the way the dead horses scene was later mirrored by the shot of Jaime’s severed hand this episode was a classic example of how and why the screen is a different medium to the book, and should be appreciated as such.
4. The jarring song over the end credits. A serious ‘WTF?” moment, and yet it too was the perfect screen equivalent of shi=ock readers felt at the last line in the book’s chapter of: “And Jaime screamed.” Readers had to go many pages on before they found out what had happened, all the time imagining any number of things.